As an employer, a lot rests on your shoulders. You can’t look up to someone else to take a lead and do things for you, you need to take responsibility for setting and meeting targets, recruiting the right people, launching the right products and services, marketing your operation in the right way and the full gamut of business functions.
Equally, when you’re in charge, there’s one thing you shouldn’t lose sight of. That’s that you have a responsibility for the people you take on to help you deliver all of that important work that falls under your remit. You have a ‘duty of care’.
In an academic paper Dr Lisbeth Claus has explored this concept, explaining that: “Managers who fail to pay attention to employer’s duty of care responsibilities, especially for their employees crossing borders, are failing in their commercial, fiduciary, legal, moral, and social responsibilities as managers.”
That sums it up nicely. But how do you fulfill this duty of care and meet these commercial, legal, moral and social responsibilities?
Law
You must stay in touch with the latest legal requirements. Ignorance is no excuse; if it’s not safe you shouldn’t do it. Learn the law and embrace any changes without delay.
Listen
An unsafe workplace is one built on poor communication. As an employer you need to talk to and, importantly, listen to your staff. They will encounter issues and hazards that must be overcome – let them be your eyes and ears to stay safe. Foster a positive atmosphere where people feel empowered to raise issues, safe in the knowledge that they will be addressed.
Training
Your staff must be capable of doing their jobs properly in order to do them safely. Identify any training they might need to carry out and make sure they take it on.
Equipment
Staff need to know how to do their jobs and they also need the right equipment to be able to carry out their tasks effectively and safely. As an employer you need to identify the right equipment for the task in hand and be specific. So, for example, those in the rail, automotive or aerospace industries may well need the services of blast rooms. As an employer it’s your duty to spot that need, do your research and pinpoint Airblast AFC as the right supplier, say.
Pastoral
Don’t forget, too, that your staff are also human beings that may well be affected by a range of things in and out of work. If your employees need support to overcome emotional stress – or need help to avoid the stress caused by being overworked – then you need to be able to give them a helping help. As an employer, running an effective HR strategy must include the capacity for this.
Operate within the law, listen to the concerns of your staff, train them up and give them the right equipment and you’ll have set them off on the right, safe, footing to do their work. It’s your job, as an employer, to establish the right platform and, from there, you need to trust them to go off and operate safely under your guise.
